The present paper deals with deposition of titanium and zirconium oxynitride films prepared from cosputtering titanium and zirconium targets by reactive RF magnetron sputtering. The effect of power variation on various properties of the deposited films is analysed. The film gets transformed from amorphous to well crystalline oxynitride films with gradual increase of target powers as observed from XRD graphs. The films exhibit hydrophilic and hydrophobic behaviours depending upon the presence of various phases. Surface energy decreases as the film properties change from hydrophilic to hydrophobic due to greater contact angle values. The optical properties were measured by UV–Vis–NIR spectrophotometer, transmission spectra and bandgap values show variation with respect to change in elemental composition as determined from EDS analysis.

We report the effects of annealing in conjunction with CdCl$_2$ treatment on the photovoltaic properties of CdTe/Zn$_{0.1}$Cd$_{0.9}$S thin film solar cells. CdTe layer is subjected to dry CdCl$_2$ treatment by thermal evaporation method and subsequently, heat treated in air using a tube furnace from 400 to 500$^{\circ}$C. AFM and XRD results show improved grain size and crystallographic properties of the CdTe film with dry CdCl$_2$ treatment. This recrystallization and grain growth of the CdTe layer upon CdCl$_2$ treatment translates into improved photo-conversion efficiencies of CdTe/Zn$_{0.1}$Cd$_{0.9}$S cell. The results of dry CdCl$_2$ treatment were compared with conventional wet CdCl$_2$ treatment. Photo-conversion efficiency of 5.2% is achieved for dry CdCl$_2$-treated cells in comparison with 2.4% of wet-treated cell at heat treatment temperature of 425$^{\circ}$C.